Stephen Harper, looking to stem the dramatic slide of his party in Quebec, reassured Quebecers on Saturday that he is not the "devil incarnate."

Hahaha. Wow. You know things are bad when you have to try to convince people you're not Satan.

Obviously poor Steve was having a really bad Luciferish kind of day:

Earlier Saturday, in London, Ont., Harper scoffed at the possibility a Conservative government would have to cut programs to balance the budget if the economy continues to slump.

"This is a ridiculous hypothetical scenario," Harper told reporters when asked what his priorities would be in terms of program cuts.

"What it really comes down to is you're asking me to say what would Canada do if our economy went to hell in a handbasket. This government is running the economy so it can't go to hell in a handbasket."

And with that, he grabbed his pitchfork and made his way out the door.

I was quite surprised this afternoon to see the covers of the Calgary Sun and the Calgary Herald both carrying prominent doom and gloom stories about the economy. This is, after all, Harper country. But you know how Con supporters are around these parts, you could prove that Steve is the "devil incarnate" and they'd still vote for him anyway. Partisanship kills crucial brain cells.

Harper sued the Liberals for defamation in 2008 based on comments on their website about the situation with Cadman.

Harper said the tape had been edited, but a court-appointed expert in the defamation case reported Friday that the key portions that the prime minister had contested contain "neither physical nor electronic splices, edits or alterations."

Harper needs to explain "what he meant when he said on the tape that Conservative officials offered Mr. Cadman financial considerations for his vote," Dion said.

You betcha. That might have done a bit more damage if it had been revealed earlier in the campaign.

Nationally, the poll of 1,000 Canadians conducted on Friday suggests the Conservatives had the support of 35 per cent of decided voters. That's down from the 39 per cent that the party garnered when the same poll was conducted on Sept. 28 and 29.

The Liberals climbed from 24 per cent to 28 per cent over the same period while the NDP remained steady at 19 per cent and the Green Party fell from 10 per cent to 9 per cent.[...]Other polls conducted over the past two or three days had different numbers for the national race. Harris-Decima put the Conservatives at 36 per cent across the country and the Liberals at 25 per cent, a gain of one point for the Tories and a loss of one point for the Grits.

A Nanos Research survey, meanwhile, suggested that there was just a four-point spread between the two parties, with the Conservatives at 32 per cent and the Liberals at 28 per cent. The New Democrats were selected by 22 per cent of respondents in that poll while the Green were chosen by 8 per cent.

As always, it's hard to know which is the most accurate poll so try not to bite your nails too much the next couple of days (especially if you're a carpenter).